A vaccination programme has begun this month to halt the spread of an increasingly deadly form of meningitis.

All 14-year-olds are being offered the jab against meningococcal W, which claimed 18 lives in the first eight months of 2018, three times as many as the equivalent period last year.

The Dutch government has been accused of being slow to react to the rapid spread of meningococcal W infection. Pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline warned two years ago that the virus was the same strain that triggered a public health emergency in the UK in 2015, prompting the British government to introduce the vaccine.

Between January and August 2015 there were just four cases in the Netherlands, but the following year the number rose to 27, including three fatalities. This year there were 78 recorded cases up to August 31.

The publicity surrounding the disease has led to a spike in orders for the vaccine, with pharmacies ordering some 6,000 doses in September, 30 times as many as in June.

The infection most commonly occurs in the 15 to 19 age group and is spread by coughing and sneezing. The virus can live in the nasal passages without causing infection, but if it enters the bloodstream or nervous system it can trigger symptoms similar to gastric flu such as high temperatures, vomiting and diarrhoea.

Around one-sixth of all cases prove fatal, but the death rate is twice as high for 14 to 24-year-olds. People who develop severe diarrhoea are at the greatest risk.